Reflections of a night on the morning after. The rain was neither a deluge nor a drizzle. Yet it was steady and constant nearly the entire evening and the chill in the air was evident with every breath seen by the players. To be sure, both teams had to deal with the environmental conditions and most certainly both starting pitchers were able to withstand what might have buckled another. As it did for nearly every position player at the plate. On one side, you had young Ian Anderson (our very own Jethro Tull who somehow proved that he was Thick As a Brick.) He's had a nearly flawless postseason record in his brief career and this team needed it after losing the tested ace in Charlie Morton to a broken fibula in game one (and pitching on it even after the fracture) and seeing the 1A ace in Max Fried see another game get away from him early (even though he battled it out.) On the other side was baby rocking Luis Garcia who was equally as tender footed as a major league pitcher and had seen one good game and one poor for the previous round of the playoffs. Who would best the other on this nasty, nasty night?
I don't know about you, but I get very superstitious about the first pitch of any game in MLB. Anderson's first pitch was called a ball down and away and for one of the few times this evening, the umpire was correct. And so it would go for a good portion of the five innings that followed. But we'll get to that below. For first, we must look at the opposing pitcher. For 3 and 2/3 innings, Garcia threw 72 pitches, only 41 called strikes. 16 of those were swinging strikes and many of those were outside of the actual strike zone. No thanks to umpire Tom Hallion for his inconsistent strike zone that might have caused Braves hitters to swing at things they might not otherwise, but this is and has been an aggressive team (sometimes too aggressive) and so we were in need of a great performance by our starter. One run would score in the 3rd inning which would chase Garcia, but not before 2 pitches and 2 outs in the 4th.
So Ian Anderson would trot out to the mound for five innings and throw no hit ball...somehow. 76 pitches offered. Only 39 of those were called strikes. In no way could one call this a dominating performance. It was smoke and mirrors and rain (perhaps) to create what Houston Manager Dusty Baker called "effectively wild." Your major sports writers were astounded (and not too many fans) when Anderson was pulled after the fifth, but the tale of the tape says why. The number of full counts, the number of first (and second) pitch balls to batters. The traffic on the base paths even without the benefit of a hit. There would be key pitches, to be sure. These would extend the no hitter. But it was not pretty. As a fan and viewer, every pitch seemed as if that would be the one to break out and yet...it did not happen. Our young Jethro Tull would sneak through (and get the all important win) in a game that was a must win.
No small part of that was the bullpen performance that followed. Minter, Jackson, Matzek and Smith would follow with 2 hit ball for the final 4 innings and the Braves would tack on another score in the 8th with a Travis D'Arnaud home run. In the end, the shutout was preserved and the win gained to bring the Braves 2 games up to 1 for Houston. So it really wasn't a no hitter. Nor should it have been. Yet what it was? A gutsy and nail-biting performance most needed at this moment in the Series. On a night that was ugly in weather, when Braves hitters would swing wildly and at unnecessary moments, when the umpiring crew (most especially behind the plate) would give no quarter to our staff and when so many in the national media wanted to make a story out of nothing (once again) as the games moved to Atlanta, we got the performance required no matter how unlikely it was. It was not a no hitter but it was for 5 innings and it was the worst (best?) no hitter I ever saw. Now bring on game 4!
That is all.
Comments